Allow me to set the scene a little before y’all (that’s Kentuckian for everyone) start reading this debrief of the 53rd running of the Mid-America Truck Show, or MATS, as it is more commonly known. MATS is an event that expands well beyond its official three-day program. It’s more of a weeklong event.
Days before the official start of the show, there are car parks full of mobile truck washers, professional polishers and masters of the micro-fibres working tirelessly to prep the plethora large cars for this annual event. While the event itself is packed full of truck porn, guest lecturers, performance artists and an increasing number of social media personalities, the lead up to the show is where you get to see the passion and dedication the Americans have for their trucks. Hence my summary of this year’s event is covering my entire trip, from my first Cactus Blossom upon touchdown to my race to the basement as the tornado warnings blared through the streets of Louisville on my last night in town. I will endeavour to cover it all and do enough justice that it entices more of us antipodeans to venture across and experience this event.
It has been a few years since I’ve graced the sidewalks and hallways of the Kentucky Exposition Centre, and while a lot has changed, the core concept is still the same. MATS is America’s largest, and one of the world’s longest running trucking events. It is an event where you can learn about the latest and greatest in trucking technology, network with everyone from fuel consumption specialists to freight broking executives or just restock your trucking wardrobe with the latest in cool trucking shirts. All of this takes place inside the humongous Kentucky Exhibition Centre. Outside the exhibition centre you get to see some of the coolest and most unique trucks partaking in the PKY Truck Beauty Contest, which is the Superbowl of America’s Truck Show Circuit. As I alluded to earlier, however, this is more than just a three-day event and, knowing that, I made my way over to America with a few days up my sleeve.
The journey to get to Louisville may seem daunting – in my case it consisted of a 1.5-hour flight from Brisbane to Sydney, a 15-hour flight from Sydney to Dallas and a 2.5-hour flight from Dallas to Louisville, Kentucky. I departed Brisbane early Monday morning and, time zones accounted for, found myself driving out of Louisville Airport on Monday night. Again, it sounds like a lot of travel, and it is. However, hours of sitting, and then sleeping in uncomfortable positions, is almost a pre-requisite for us truck drivers. We’ve spent years earning money working under these kinds of conditions, so enduring them in order to experience a show like MATS is almost a pleasure. 15 hours on a plane is a lot easier than a Friday night on the M1.
After all the flights, one of the coolest parts about arriving at Louisville is that the flight path takes you directly over the Kentucky Exhibition Centre. Even if you were starting to feel jaded, your energy levels spike as you glance down and see the lines of jaw-dropping, eye popping large cars (another American colloquialism) scattered throughout the exhibition centre’s 300 acres of outdoor space. If they aren’t already shined up, they are fitting stacks, staging wheels, or just plain cleaning and polishing. Seeing this as you descend into the airport is enough to make you forget all about the punishing process of travelling over to the land of liquid cheese.
By the time I got my luggage and rental car, the sun may have disappeared somewhere around Missouri, but my energy levels were still peaking after the scenic landing. There was no rushing off for me, it was time to do a quick tour through the Kentucky Exhibition Centre car parks in order ignite my excitement for the next day, then go and catch up with some old friends and enjoy my first Cactus Blossom in several years.
I will take a brief interlude from the show rundown to describe a Cactus Blossom. Picture, if you will, an onion. Now imagine if an onion was a flower and every year it would blossom. Now picture that opened up onion flower being coated in batter, dropped into a deep fryer and served up with chilli-horseradish dipping sauce. That is a Cactus Blossom, and it is addictive.
As I mentioned, the show officially starts on the Thursday. If you wanted to go and explore Louisville, you would have plenty of options. There’s the Kentucky Derby Museum and the Muhammad Ali Centre. There is no shortage of bourbon distilleries to visit, or if you felt like a short drive, the National Corvette Museum is just down the road.
Conversely you can pop over to the Kentucky Exhibition Centre and lap up all the activity going on there. The centre itself has a three-lane road that encompasses the whole arena. Located inside and outside that is a multitude of carparks. This is where I spent my pre-MATS days, watching some epic trucks come to life. Polish and product brought the shine out of the working trucks, while wrenches and spanners brought life to the show trucks. In between all that there was a constant stream of impeccable rigs heading into the exhibition centre to be staged up on exhibitors’ stands.
As you can guess, on location was how I spent all of my time. Jumping between annoying the truck washers and polishers, walking the car park to take in the amazing trucks rolling in and wandering over to the front of the exhibition centre where they were now staging the PKY Truck Beauty contest.
Last time I was over for this event, the Show’n’Shine side was held around the rear of the exhibition centre, tucked in behind the West Wing. Over the last couple of years, however, there have been some good changes. What is known as the West Wing is being revamped. It meant the PKY Truck Beauty Show was moved to the front of the exhibition centre, allowing for greater public exposure and selfishly, a lot less steps on my Fitbit. Along with benefiting the truck show outside, it also meant a revamp of the interior layout, which has now seen all the vendors moved into the North and South Wing. This meant a lot less vacant space to walk around and a lot easier access to all the exhibitors.
On Thursday, before the show opened, I was lucky enough to get some time with long time curator of the PKY Truck Beauty contest, Jason ‘JC’ Alt. He filled me in on how things work when you are dealing with a show this big, and of this calibre.
“We don’t have a rock up and enter show,” he says.
“They all have to pre-register well in advance and that helps us to be able to form a layout of how we will park them, because we only have so much space and a certain time to get them in.”
JC also explained that every truck needs to be staged up and photographed by 1pm on the Wednesday before the show. This is to allow time for the judges to start on certain categories as early as possible. With nearly 150 trucks all clean enough to eat your dinner off the drive shaft, the 10 judges have their work cut out for them.
“Last year we introduced the build-off competition as well,” JC says.
The idea was for the guys that were building high end show trucks to take on the circuit, and have their own category.
“We had five truck builders enter; entry is $5000 each, with the winner taking home $25000. The level these guys go to is well beyond the prize money but it’s about the title,” he says.
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By Wednesday night, all the competition trucks were in place, I had racked up nearly 50,000 steps and 1500 photos between the car parks and the staging area. All of this and we were still a day away from the show ‘opening’. Wednesday night may be the eve of MATS but it is also the MATS Light Show night, allowing the official photographers access to the trucks before the crowds and allowing the judges time to evaluate the light show winners. It is a very busy night and as the darkness doesn’t hit until late, it is not unusual to find 1am rolling around and the lights are still ablaze.
Next, we are into opening day. Doors to the inside open to general public around lunchtime, while media and special guests get early access. I took advantage of the early access to have a look around and grab some shots before the crowds started flocking in.
There were hundreds of exhibitors and countless pens and back scratchers being given away. Admittedly a lot of the vendors on hand had no relevance for an Australian truckie or our way of life, but it was still interesting to wander around and chat. One thing you won’t find at Mid-America Truck Show is OEM representation. Unlike the Brisbane Truck Show, where most of the main players have displays and are interacting with their customers, MATS does not draw the same OEM attendance.
Lacking the OEMs does not detract from the show as a whole though. There are so many big players in the safety arena, the efficiency arena and most importantly the cosmetic arena that over the course of the three days you still find yourself stumbling across stands you hadn’t seen on your previous walk-abouts.
Thursday saw me trying to get around as much of the North and South wing as I could, investigating everything from Freightrax Training’s online driver training courses to Cush Corps’ innovative new lift axle setups.
Friday’s goal was to get the final few stands covered, attend a couple of the trucker talks and get down to the ATHS end of the South Wing and marvel at the classic old rigs on display. I had a plan and a time schedule, and they both went out the window when the show opened. The attendance on Friday was phenomenal. It was shoulder to shoulder all day – it was the busiest I had experienced there. My walking rate was slowed down and I spent the majority of my time just enjoying the amazing trucks on display outside.
Saturday is the final day; the show wraps up at 4pm, though a lot of the vendors were starting to tear down by about 2pm. The crowd numbers, while still incredible, felt lower than Friday’s. I believe that was because the morning had started with severe weather warnings for Louisville and a lot of the mid-west area. Massive storms, baseball size hail and even tornados were being predicted. It was great to see that weather forecasters in America are as accurate as ours, however. As I wandered through the PKY Truck beauty contestants on my way to the 10am awards, the weather was stunning. Blue skies and sunburn greeted me as I lapped up the last of the show’s events.
The other iconic event tied into MATS is the annual truck parade that follows the closing of the event. You recall I mentioned the three-lane road that surrounds the arena? Well historically, every Sunday after the show, the remaining trucks would do laps of the circuit. This year the spectacle took place on the Saturday evening, adding a different feel to it. There was hundreds more spectators hanging around to enjoy the convoy. Sure, it made photographing the trucks a lot harder, but it can’t all be about me.
Traditionally the Sunday after the event is my zen day, squeezing in as many photoshoots as I could. The Americans are always extremely keen and appreciative when you approach them about shoots. Not this year though. The looming weather ensured most were bolting for home as soon as possible. I managed a couple of photoshoots, but like everyone I was starting to take the weather a little more seriously and instead made my way back to the accommodation to pack my gear and contemplate the long voyage home.
As I sat on the lounge, discussing with my American colleagues how much I had enjoyed the show, the quality of the trucks on display and even the couple of trucker talks I had attended, the reruns of Pawn Stars on TV were suddenly drowned out by incredibly loud sirens outside. The well-versed Americans immediately bolted for the basement, yelling at me to follow. Tornado warning. I gathered my kids (my cameras) first and followed.
I feel a tornado scare was a great way to finish up a trip to MATS. It added another first to my list and just goes to show that this event will raise your eyebrows no matter how many times you go. If you are thinking about going again or venturing out for the first time, don’t be swayed by the flights or layovers. It is worth the discomfort of both; the trucks just keep getting better, the displays are getting more elaborate and now they are even throwing in weather warnings. What more can you ask for?
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